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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Orcs Hit Las Vegas: Game 6 Tournament Report: Last Game

And so we come to the final game of the Quake.
If you missed the earlier 5 game reports, they're in the updates just before this one.

The contenders for the cup looked to be Norse (not the one I played earlier) vrs. Wood Elves. There was also a chance it could come down to Orcs vrs Dwarves.

For the rest of us, it was a 'challenge' match: we were all out of the running, so we could pick a team to play.
I like when tournaments do this. Some of my best games have been in this setting, when it is more relaxed.

Coming back from lunch late, many already setting up their games my friend Dan and I decided to play. Despite coming to the event together and being friends for, what? 13 years? We don't get a chance to play each other very often, and the last time we played Blood Bowl against each other was the last last game of West Coast Quake where my Lizards made pitch fertilizer out of his high elves: inflicting 6 casualties and winning the game.
A fact I was kind enough to remind him of ;)

He was a bit hesitant at first, probably thinking Orcs can do as much or more damage as Lizards... but he put a smile on his face and was ready to play:

Game 6: Bronze Boars vrs Lothern Lyin' Under the Bed in Fear... no wait, Lothern Lyin' Down on the Job... no that's not right either... Lothern Lyin' About Bleaching Their Hair. No.. let me check the notes again... ah! Lothern Lions! That was it.

Ribbing aside, I have a lot of respect for the High Elf team. I think they are a really good team and are under appreciated. I have a High Elf team I converted a year ago, just haven't had the time to paint them- maybe for next year's Quake, we'll see. The problem with an elf team is that the linemen are so very expensive for a skill-less player. 70k is a lot to pay. But you can do amazing things with agility 4. Most people, myself included, are drawn to bash teams though, for the stability and for the Big Guy. That's a drawback of a High Elf team: no big guy! Big Guys, like trolls, are just so fun.

His team was 11 players plus Zelvis. 1 Thrower, 2 Blitzers, 2 Catchers: Pretty standard High Elves, emphasis on pretty. Both Catchers had Block, 1 Blitzer had Dodge, the Thrower had Pro (for the 3rd Re-roll) and 2 Linemen had Fend.

Pre-game: He gets +2 fame! and wins the coin toss. It's now official, I tied for fame a few times but never won that dice-off and I never once won the coin toss. I feel like Rosencrantz. He elects to kick.

He unfurls his living net and kicks.

Just some glamour shots. His high elves are a gorgeous team.

I sent in a guarding blitzer then blitzed his blodger with my tackler, to eliminate that dodge advantage, but nothing came of it. In return he knocked out Squeeze Box! Pick on someone your own size! So much for nobility! Sheesh!

Turn 2 Happy Jack beats the snot out of one of the catchers, injuring him, out for the game. That will help!

Unfortunately the slippery elves came after my thrower:

These elves dodge with impunity: dodge, dodge, dodge... just can't pin them down. Watching this really makes me want to play an agility 4 team!

They blitz my thrower, who somehow stays on his feet, even after they reroll it for a push.

He then makes a double Go For It, to pass, but an intervening elf rolls a 6 and intercepts the pass! Argh!

Bad luck for me, amazing good luck for him.

Hey you elf! You're lucky the ball is covering your number or we'd find out where you live!

On his turn 3 this elf dodges away, hands it off and they score!

The TD got him the attention to finally bag that Clairol Hair Dye endorsement contract he's been wanting.

Nice play. Well, I had no choice but to try for the pass with all those elves on my thrower. Still plenty of time to score to tie it up before the half ends.

Let's try this again.

My Orcvis was ejected (secret weapon) and his Zelvis must take the field since he's down a player.

Baba O'Riled Up, my tackler, tackles the blodger ellf and knocks him out and then gains some ground.

I toss a short pass but even with the reroll (2 reroll 2) it scatters. Next turn The Seeker goes for it, picks up the ball, goes for it again to hand off, the receiving orc rolls 1: reroll: not caught. It bounces.

The elves take advantage of the orc clumsiness and get some TZ on the ball:

I knocked an elf down, stupid me put him in the wrong place, so when pushing the next elf, he still has a TZ on the ball, a mistake I'll pay for: The Seeker picked up the ball, but in dodging out, rolls a 1 and falls.

I still have a chance though: The Seeker gets up, gets the ball, does 1 go for it to make a pass: 2: re-roll: 1.

This is getting ridiculous. Seeker can't seem to make an 8/9 chance of success roll no matter how often he tries it.

Time's out, half ends 0-1 for the Lothern Lyin' About Their Age.

2nd half:

A Fend Elf & the Blodging Blitzer stay knocked out, the catcher comes back. Zelvis has left the building, leaving just 7 elves on the pitch.

The kick is shallow and is caught by a line-elf. Wouldn't a kick off result of Blitz have been perfect right now?

The kick-off table was special for the event however, and since it only had results on 7 and 4 of the numbers at either end, there usually weren't any kick off results.

Venting their frustrations, the Boars knock a catcher down and Boris da Spider gets a +4 assist to stomping on the elf's groin. Rarely used anyway, this merely stuns the catcher but the ref sees it and ejects Boris from the game.

The elves send a couple scoring threats down my right side, and I try to fence them in while blitzing to get at the thrower.

I have a clear man-advantage, but these elves are so slippery it doesn't count for much.

Seeing a way around my left, an elf blitzer charges little Squeeze Box and injures him. Again with the picking on the little guys? Seriously? What did they ever do to you? Oh yeah.. groin-stomp... but how long are you going to hold that grudge? It's been a full two turns already. Sheesh.

I blitz the elf ball carrier and he goes down, the ball squirts to Tommy, #5 the Orc Blitzer.

But he gets blitzed himself, knocked down, the ball squirts free:

Didn't have the ball for long. The elf catcher scoops up the ball, dodges out.. what's this?

He fails his dodge? The catcher falls!

I'd been keeping track: this was dodge #19 for the elves: the first failure. Not a bad run.

At this point we were one of just 2 games not finished.We'd taken our time, with pictures, joking, and were now under 'time-clock' to finish up. So less pictures more play...

I recover the ball with The Seeker, make a pass: 1: Re-roll: 2. Great Coagulating Blood Hell! Are you serious? He only needed a 3. With a re-roll that is a 8/9 chance to succeed. Again: this is why I don't gamble.

The elves, singing a merry tune, skip over, pick up the ball, thanking the howling orc thrower kindly, and run it in to score: 2-0. OK, it was a bit harder than that, he had to make 2 dodges, one through a Tackle Zone to get the ball, pass it, catch it and score. All of those rolls he made fine- but it feels better to imagine he only had to skip along a garden path to do it, after all, that's how easy elves make it look.

Now very rushed, I set up to receive, make all my moves and say your turn, hitting the time clock.

He begins moving his players only then do I realize I forgot to move my thrower! The Seeker just sat in the middle of the backfield, while the ball was 6 spaces to the left. Serious punishment for feeling rushed. What a stupid move- the ball is a full move plus 1 go for it from my thrower, though I could have just sat on its TZ and picked it up the next turn. As it is, it's within 2 go for it's from being picked up by an elf blitzer!

Which is exactly what the elf blitzer does: 2 Go For It and snag the ball, he also has a back up elf by him and got another line elf to mark The Seeker. What a mess.

He'd wrapped around my left hand orcs, so only The Seeker was available, to dodge & blitz a blitzer, with no team rerolls left.

When there is only one option though, it's an easy decision to make.

The Seeker declares a blitz: Dodge (It's good!) move 5 to contact the elf, Go For It to blitz the blitzer, I didn't roll a 1! (amazing) 1 die block: Pow! The elf goes down! The ball bounces, goes out of bounds, the fans throw it in the direction of my forward lines and roll 2d6: 10! The ball lands right in front of Baba O'Riled Up! Who hasn't gone yet!

Baba O'Riled Up is free & clear, steps forward, picks up the ball, runs toward the end zone, with not a single elf in range to stop him!

The orcs in the stands yell & cheer. The Seeker is obviously trying to tell the coach he doesn't want to be a thrower, he wants to be a blitzer. Well, what orc doesn't?

Next turn Baba O'Riled Up walks it in, but the real hero is The Seeker, who botched every throw he made and had to have the crowd do his job for him.

Luck almost balanced out with that, not quite, but what a great story that play makes, so it was worth it.

It wouldn't have been as good of a story if it hadn't been preceded by so many bungled throws.

The game ends 2-1 For the Lothern Lyin' About in Their Undergarments.

MVP roll was: The Seeker! Dice got it right. I guess. Until he made that blitz I was ready to fire him ;)

In our 'what if' league treatment of our teams, The Lions got 4 players with skill ups, and so did mine:

The Ox, (troll) got Block, Seeker (Thrower) took Accurate .. not giving up on his throwing career yet. Happy Jack the Blitzer got his 2nd skill: Might Blow, and Baba O'Riled Up got his 2nd skill: Guard.

Thanks for a great game Dan, a well deserved win.

Maybe we'll have a Boar v Lion rematch someday!

The winner of the tournament was Norse. A good team and excellent player, so not surprised, though he faced an equally amazing player playing Wood Elves so it could have gone either way.

After report: We headed out of LasVegas, back to California, but on reaching the middle of nowhere, the freeway was shut down due to snow & ice. Really? So we were stuck, but found a moderately long detour and only delayed us a couple hours.

Lothern Lyin' About In The Muck barely beat you and that prissy beached blond Clairol elf is nothing compared to Baba O'Riled! I can't believe you hit snow on the way home, total bummer. And thanks for more Who!!!!

Interception... I used to think the pc game cheat on those (my passes almost always get intercepted), but in my last (not pc)tournament 2 out of 3 attempted pass was caught by the opponent... And I lost both game because of this:( Great game reports, read them all.

Mr.Lee: actually, Fire & Ice. Before the freeway was shut down due to ice & it snowing we passed a car that was an inferno. Hope no one was still in it. Never seen such a car fire, flames must have been 20-30 feet long, swept back over the car in the wind. Scary.

Neil: Maybe Accurate would have been a good idea after all :) At least in this game it would have helped once or twice.

McMordain: Thanks! I did intercept a bomb with a troll once (not in this tourney), though he fumbled it when he threw it back.

LL: Maybe so, hard to pick a favorite, and Seeker was really trying my patience ;) But it was a very fun game and I always appreciate a more relaxed pace.